Book Chapter 3 The Master’s master principle

1. Moses was called God’s Servant page 21
2. Moses saved his generation “Leaders belong to their generation and not to themselves”
3. Leadership is not something to be strived for. There is no glory in becoming the world’s best leader. In fact most of the world’s best leaders have been assassinated
1. Ghandi
2. Martin Luther King
3. Lincoln
4. John F. Kennedy
4. But far more important (and less spoken about) are the millions of leaders that have died to their personal agendas in order to serve a greater good.

KEY VERSE

Philippians 2:3-9 (NIV)

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

?  "The image of servanthood/slavery may be difficult for us, but it was not hard for the apostle Paul. He frequently boasted of his slavery to Christ, making lavish use of the first-century concept of the "love slave" (that is, the slave who, out of love, has freely chosen to remain a slave). We do our best to soften Paul's language by translating the word "slave" as "servant." But whatever word we decide to use, let us be certain that we understand that Paul meant he had freely given up his rights."

So what is a bond Servant? What is a slave? Ex. 21:6 Awl in the ear.

Story of Nana and her daughter Rita Maria.

A person who chooses to become a servant or a bond-servant makes only one choice. They chose to serve. They never get to make another choice.

?  "Right here we must see the difference between choosing to serve and choosing to be a servant. When we chose to serve, we are still in charge. We decide whom we will serve and when we will serve. And if we are in charge, we will worry a great deal about anyone stepping on us, that is, taking charge over us. But when we choose to be a servant/slave, we give up the right to be in charge. There is great freedom in this. If we voluntarily choose to be taken advantage of, then we cannot be manipulated. When we choose to be a servant, we surrender the right to decide when we will serve. We become available and vulnerable.

?  "Self-righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve.

1. The servant is not concerned about being served.

Never concerned about being served or receiving.

2. The servant is not greater than his lord.

What Jesus Received, We should expect to receive. DEATH

3. The servant is wholeheartedly devoted to his master.

"No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other" (Luke 16:13). No one can serve two masters . . . not for very long. James reminds us that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

4. The servant prepares for his master’s coming.

Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing (Matt. 24:45-46).

5. The servant is not concerned about impressing anyone other than his master.

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do 1 seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10; see also Eph. 6:6).

The single-hearted devotion of a servant means he does not ask if it is convenient, or comfortable, to do his master’s will-he simply does it. If others question, let them question, for the servant does not answer to them, but to his lord. Furthermore, the position of a slave, a doulos, is not one to impress others. Christ, and Christ alone, is worthy of our efforts!

6. The servant who is faithful in a few things will be promoted to faithfulness in many things.

And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, 1 have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord (Matt. 25:20-21).

There is no quick way to success, in earthly or in spiritual terms. Use what you have and the opportunities you have. Don’t wait for something spectacular. Too many believers are waiting for a "ten talent" opportunity to serve the Lord, while doing nothing with the one talent that they hold in their hands. The everyday, the ordinary, the common—this is where so many battles for godliness are won and lost.

Foster states that the ministry of small things is a daily service.  Large tasks require great sacrifice for a moment. Small tasks require constant sacrifice. The infatuation with the “big deal” has blinded us.

Wrap up texts

In the book “celebration of discipline”, Richard Foster says, “The divine priority is worship first and service second” (p. 140) Our lives are to be punctuated with praise, thanksgiving and adoration. Service flows out of worship.

Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry.

God declared that the primary function of the Levitacal priest was to “Come near to me and to minister to me” (Ezekiel 44:15) Fore the Old Testament priesthood, ministry to God was to precede all other work. And that is no less true of the universal priesthood of the New Testament. One grave temptation we all face is to run around answering calls to service without ministering to the Lord Himself.

?  Richard Foster: "In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus' call to deny father and mother, houses and land for the sake of the gospel than his word to wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance at glorious martyrdom. But in service we must experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves. Service banishes us to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial.

?  Oswald Chambers:(my umost for his highest) "It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people's feet."

?  Richard Foster: "Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered. If we stoutly refuse to give in to this lust of the flesh, we crucify it. Every time we crucify the flesh, we crucify pride and arrogance."

?  Mother Teresa: "I belong to Jesus. He must have the right to use me without consulting me."

And Finally back to Faith and servanthood!!!!!!

Luke 17:6 Faith and servanthood are tied together.

⁶So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. ⁷And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? ⁸But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? ⁹Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. ¹⁰So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”

Faith and servant hood will always be tied together